You’re going to need a scorecard to find out how to watch your favorite Major League Baseball team next season.
Next month, MLB is expected to announce new media rights deals with NBC, Netflix and ESPN, which opted out of its current package that was to run through 2028.
The moves will require some adjustments for fans, who already have to navigate Fox, Apple TV+, TBS and Roku to find national games.
But the new baseball packages underscore how media companies are looking for any edge they can get in the streaming wars that have upended viewing habits. Live sports has become the weapon of choice in their arsenals, and MLB is the latest beneficiary as the scramble for content becomes more intense.
NBC will become the new home for Sunday night games, a staple of ESPN since 1990. Netflix, which has taken an event-driven approach to live sports, is on track to capture the rights to the Home Run Derby that annually airs the day before the All-Star Game in July.
ESPN will remain in the baseball business with a new package of 30 games exclusive to the network, according to one person briefed on the plan who was not authorized to comment because the deal is not finalized. The Walt Disney Co. unit is also in discussions to license MLB.TV, the streaming site that provides telecasts of every out-of-market game to its subscribers.
Under the proposal, MLB.TV would be offered as part of ESPN’s recently launched direct-to-consumer streaming service. It remains to be seen if it will have an additional charge on top of the $30 a month ESPN will cost to stream.
MLB, ESPN, NBC and Netflix all declined to comment on the reports of the new deals.
Most of the elements in the new packages were part of the deal that ESPN walked away from when the league rejected the Walt Disney Co.’s request to renegotiate the terms. ESPN was paying $550 million a year in a deal to air 30 regular season games a season, the Home Run Derby and a Wild Card playoff round. The network said it was losing money on the package.
But Major League Baseball was bound to have other suitors open their safes. NBCUniversal reportedly will pay close to $600 million over three years. Netflix will pay $35 million a year for the Home Run Derby, a one-night event.
“ESPN may have done MLB a favor by exiting their contract early,” said Lisa Delpy Neirotti, director of the MS in Sports Management Program at George Washington University.
Broadcast and cable TV need to keep sports programming. It’s the last genre to deliver sizable ratings for advertisers who will pay a premium for audiences who see their commercials live. Streaming platforms have discovered that sports can attract more advertising dollars and also retain customers paying monthly fees.
“Regardless of the screen, sports generates viewers, subscribers and sponsors, year after year,” said Lee Berke, president of LHB Sports, Entertainment & Media. “No other content category offers the same consistent strengths. The networks know that and the sports leagues know that.”
After Skydance Media took over Paramount Global, the company announced a deal to make Paramount+ and CBS the exclusive U.S. home of the UFC for $7.7 billion over seven years. ESPN nabbed the rights to WWE’s live sports entertainment spectacles, including WrestleMania, for $1.6 billion.
In both deals, the media rights fees significantly increased as ESPN and Paramount wanted the properties to bolster their streaming platforms.
NBCUniversal aggressively pursued the NBA for both its broadcast network and Peacock streaming service. The company is looking to make Peacock a must-have service while also providing more live content for NBC, which continues to cut back on scripted programming on the network.
A Sunday baseball package will give NBC live sports on the night throughout the year as it carries NFL “Sunday Night Football” and plans to offer NBA games in the winter and spring.
Ratings for baseball do not approach the NFL, the behemoth of broadcast TV. But in the current fragmented media environment, their relative strength has improved.
ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” is averaging 1.75 million viewers this season, up 11% compared with last year, according to Nielsen. The Home Run Derby had an average audience of 5.7 million, up 5%.
Streaming has altered consumer viewing habits, offering viewers a wide range of programming they can watch on their own schedule. But feeding the beast with new scripted content is expensive and risky.
Live sports delivers a product that already has a built-in audience whose loyalty to teams doesn’t waver.
“You can make an investment in the NFL and no matter who the players are, fans will show up,” Berke added.
The upcoming MLB deals only run for three years. The league wants them to align with its major TV rights package that includes the playoffs, the World Series and the All-Star Game. Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery’s TBS carry those packages until 2028.
The next deal is likely to streamline the rights packages so that viewers will have to do less searching to find their games.
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